Tim Brown of Port Huron surfaces in the St. Clair River after diving several wrecks along the Thomas Edison Parkway in Port Huron. / AP

Written by

Beth LeBlanc | | Times Herald

Walt Lichota, of Kenockee Township, and Karen Bethuy, of Chesterfield, learning to dive in the pool of Steve Chandler, owner of Dive Inn Watersports. / Times Herald

AREA DIVE SHOPS

Anchor Bay Scuba, Inc. is located at 8655 Dixie Hwy., Fair Haven. You can reach Anchor Bay Scuba at (586) 725-1991, at scuba329@comcast.net, or at www.anchorbayscuba.com. Dive Inn Watersports is located inside Desmond Marine at 207 Water Street, Port Huron. You can reach Dive Inn Watersports at (810) 987-6263, at diveinn@advnet.net, or at diveinnwatersports.net.

The Blue Water Area comes by its name honestly. With miles of Lake Huron shoreline and riverfront boardwalks, blue water dances around and through the area.

But it’s what’s beneath the swirling surface that holds the most magic.

“We have some of the best preserved underwater shipwrecks around,” Wayne Brusate, a local diver and chief of the St. Clair County Sheriff Dive Team, said. “A lot of the salt water wrecks tend to deteriorate a lot faster.”

Ross Richardson, author of “The Search for the West Moorland,” agrees.

“The highest concentration of shipwrecks in the great Lakes, and maybe the planet, is in the Thumb area,” Richardson said.

“Really these are underwater museums. They are an example of what life was like 100, 150 years ago.”

Jeff Vass, dive master for Dive Inn Watersports in Port Huron, estimates there are 18 to 20 wrecks in the area worth diving on — from the Regina off Port Sanilac, to the Sweetheart in Lexington, to the Tuskegee Air Corps plane by Harsens Island.

“Most of the wrecks are preserved, whereas in Florida they’re just hulls,” Vass said.

Wrecks are better preserved in the lakes because the water’s colder and teredo worms in salt water decimate wooden wrecks, Richardson said.

Teredo worms aren’t an issue with Great Lakes wrecks.

“I think they’re the best preserved wrecks in the world,” Richardson said. “Nothing compares to the Great Lakes as far as preservation.”

The waters are clearer than they were 10 to 20 years ago partially because of zebra mussels, Brusate said.

Brusate was with three two others when he discovered the Regina off Port Sanilac in 1986, a wreck that had been lost to the lake since the Great Storm of 1913.

He said the lake bottom has a story to tell, but so does the St. Clair River.

“Diving the wrecks on the river is even more enjoyable than those on the lake,” Brusate said. “There’s so much more to see.”

Brusate said the river holds a treasure trove of items dumped in the river decades ago, or items that fell through the ice when residents became overly confident during winter.

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The river bottom holds antique bottles from old dairies, small fishing boats and, near Algonac, a Model T Ford.

“It’s part of history,” Brusate said.

Brusate said first-time divers shouldn’t start out under the Blue Water Bridge, where gusty currents make the dive challenging.

He recommended trying along the St. Clair boardwalk, or diving on shipwrecks right off the shores of Marine City, Algonac, or Marysville.

Vass said first-time divers should go to a dive store. Dive Inn Watersports charters dives in the Blue Water Area. So do the Great Lakes Dive Center in Shelby Township and Diver’s Den in Lapeer.

“(The Blue Water area) is more dive-friendly,” Vass said. “The current’s not as bad. The shipwrecks are a little closer to shore because this was a huge port.”

For Brian Martin, the allure beneath the blue surface doesn’t lie in shipwrecks, but in the marine life that darts along the lake and river bottom.

“I’m in it for the fish,” Martin said. “It’s definitely, in my opinion, a tourist attraction that’s not being utilized.

“It’s a slowly revealing secret.”

Kathy Johnson agrees.

As co-owners of Gregory A.D., she and her husband, Gregory Lashbrook, film underwater marine life. She said the Blue Water area is an undiscovered trove of fresh water fish.

“It’s pretty much the only place in the Great Lakes that you can see every fresh water fish in the Great Lakes,” Johnson said.

The St. Clair River’s placement between the upper and lower great lakes makes it a marine highway for fish, especially sturgeon.

“We have the largest sturgeon population in the Great Lakes Basin,” Johnson said.

With no dams to impede their journey, the freshwater sharks stick around the St. Clair River to spawn. Johnson said nothing compares to swimming alongside a Great Lakes sturgeon.

“When you dive down there and something is as big as you, it puts things in perspective,” Johnson said.

Johnson described a dive on the river like a carnival ride, sweeping divers along wrecks, forgotten staples of life on the river, and gigantic sturgeon.

If you’re lucky, you might attract a marine companion on your drift down the river.

“They’re very curious,” Brusate said. “The fish follow right along with you.”